Testing the (Actual) Gender Gap in Support for War

• In Event: Conflict and Gender

Abstract

There is a long standing research tradition that explores the so-called “gender gap” in support for war. These studies argue that characteristics like maternalism, feminist identity, socialization, and biology cause women to be slightly less likely than men to support war. Some studies even show that women are more likely than men to support war under specific circumstances, but explanations for these phenomena are underdeveloped. Furthermore, none of these studies actually measure the gender identity of their survey/experiment participants. Instead, they measure sex (framed as male or female) and claim a gender gap. This is partly because gender identity has been so poorly understood historically, but new research in public opinion and Feminist Security Studies has advanced the measure of gender identity. I draw on these literatures to show that the previously hypothesized gender gap (actually a sex gap) is much stronger when gender identity is measured. I do this through two steps. First, I explore two key approaches to the measure of gender identity. Traditional research has sought to measure gender identity through association with supposedly gendered traits like autonomy and dependence, while some newer research has sought to measure gender identity through association with the identities of masculinity and femininity. I take the latter approach and develop four different gender identity measures. Second, I use these different measures in a survey which asks respondents their preferences towards a hypothetical war. I show how the responses to this question vary depending on which gender identity measure is used.

Author

• Thomas Worth, University of Wisconsin-Madison